METHADONE is a con job - an unholy alliance between addicts and doctors. For the addicts, it means no need to change; for the doctors it mean serious change in the bank account.

How could this medical and social disaster ever be allowed to
happen? If authorities had told me that Ontario, just one Canadian
province, was treating 400 addicts in methadone clinics, I’d believe
them. But, the actual number is 42,000. But how many of these addicts
need methadone? And what is the solution for this madness?

Dr. Theodore Dalrymple is not an arm-chair commentator on addiction.
Rather, he’s an internationally renowned expert, a British psychiatrist,
and prison doctor who has treated thousands of addicts over years.

In his book, Romancing Opiates, he writes that heroin is not as
highly addictive as claimed, and withdrawal not as difficult as treating
an alcoholic. He claims, “It’s a myth that treating the heroin
addiction 'cold turkey' causes withdrawal symptoms that are virtually
unbearable.”

He adds that, after witnessing withdrawal symptoms in thousands of
patients, “they are hardly worse than the flu. Moreover, the sudden
withdrawal of heroin is not dangerous.”

To prove his point Dalrymple reports that researchers examined the
records of thousands of addicts between 1875 and 1968 who had been taken
off heroin. They did not find a single death from withdrawal symptoms.

Dalrymple makes another poignant observation. He has observed addicts
laughing and having a great time in his waiting room. But once inside
his consulting office they acted as if they’re “in extremis.” And when he
points out this abrupt change in health, they have admitted they were
“blagging.”

He cites another experiment that shows how addiction is largely a
myth. Morphine addicts, who believed they were being given morphine, but
had only received water, reported their withdrawal symptoms had
disappeared!

Dalrymple claims that the use of methadone has had a low success
rate. The result is that addicts end up being treated indefinitely with
medication at great cost to society. And he says doctors have a long
history of treating trivial conditions dangerously with drugs such as
methadone.

This prison expert says there is nothing an addict likes more than to
continue his personal way of life and place the weight of
responsibility for his situation somewhere other than on his own
decisions.
So Dalrymple contends that a useless medical bureaucracy has been
established to deal with addicts. After all, why would doctors and staff
want this merry-go-round to end when it’s become financially lucrative?
In effect, he says, doctors and administrators need the addicts more
than the addicts need them!

I couldn’t agree more that North America has followed an asinine
approach to heroin addiction that’s causing major public health problems
for this country. Years ago, I interviewed Singapore authorities about
how they had attacked the illegal use of drugs.

They accused North Americans of being “irresponsibly permissive.”
This message was dispensed on my flight even before landing. A handout
card to passengers read, “Death to drug dealers.”

Singapore authorities told me that the illegal use of heroin had been
rampart in the country, and destroying young lives. Prime Minister Lee
Kuan Yew decided to stop this trend. He realized you should never show
your teeth unless you’re prepared to bite.

Criminals quickly got his message when drug dealers were hanged.

I recently read that Alberta has a rat patrol and has been rat-free
for 65 years. The Albertan policy is to take no prisoners. What a shame
North America doesn’t use the same approach for humans. I’m referring to
human rats that pedal illegal drugs which trigger health problems,
misery and crime at a huge cost to society.

Congratulations to Dr. Dalrymple his research. So I believe he would
agree that the majority of addicts would be quickly cured by sending
them to northern Canada to chop wood. They would be happy to return
south without the methadone. As Aristotle remarked two thousand years
ago, “punishment is a form of medicine.”

I’m sure this column will be criticized by do-gooders that it’s a
mortal sin to to deny methadone to addicts. But I believe health care
dollars could be better utilized.

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